I can only imagine the outrage at the time. A relatively small guy best known as a comedian was going to be cast as Batman and the film was directed by a 29 year old who's only credits included 2 silly PG comedy films. That sounds like a total disaster

"We want to see the newest things. That is because we want to see the future, even if only momentarily. It is the moment in which, even if we don't completely understand what we have glimpsed, we are nonetheless touched by it. This is what we have come to call art." -Takashi Murakami